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.OYAL PUBLICATION SOCIETY 

863 BlgOAB^VAY 



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(Vice-President of so-called Confederate States.) 

From the Speech of A, H. STEPHENS, of Georgia: 

November 14rtli, 18G0. ^^'^ 




NEW YOEK : 
Published bt the Loyal Publication Society. 

1864. 



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LOYAL PUBLICATION SOCIETY. 



THE ASSERTIONS OF A SECESSIONIST. 



From the Speeoh of A. H. STEPffENS, of Georgia.' '/ 

Delivered. 14tl:i November, 1S60. 



(The Speech is published entire, and forms No, 36 of the series of the Society's 
publications.) 

By force of sheer reiteration, thousands of ignorant and thought- 
less people at the North, as well as in Europe, have been per- 
suaded into the belief that the Government of the United States, 
and the loyal people who sustain it, were in some way respon- 
sible for the war which now, for nearly four years, has devastated 
the country ; or, at least, that they might at any time honorably 
end it, and restore peace and tranquillity if they chose. 

Fellow-Citizens : — My object is not to stir up strife, but to 
allay it; not to appeal to your pass'ons, but to your reason. 
Good governments can never be bull; up or sustained by the 
impulse of passion. I wish to address i syself to your good sense, 
to your good judgment. 

The first question that presents itself Is, shall the people of the 
South secede from the Union in consequence of the election of 
Mr. Lincoln to the Presidency of the United States? My coun- 
trymen, / tell you JranMy^ candidly, and earnestly^ that I do 
not thhih that they ought. In my judgment, the election of no 
man, constitutionally chosen to that high office, is sufficient cause 
for any State to separate from the Union. It ought to stand by 
still and aid in maintaining the Constitution of the country. To 
make a point of resistance to the Government, to withdraw from 
it because a man has been constitutionally elected, puts us in the 
wrong, "We are pledged to maintain the Constitution, Many 
of us have sworn to support it. Can we, therefore, for the mere 
election of a man to the Presidency, and that, too, in accordance 
with the prescribed forms of the Constitution, make a point of 
resistance to the Government without becoming the breakers of 
that sacred instrument ourselves — withdraw ourselves from it ? 
Would we not l-e in the wrong 1 We went into the election with 
this people. The result was different from what we wished ; but 
the election has been constitutionally held. Were we to make a 
point of resistance to the Government and go out of the Union on 
that account, the record would be made up hereafier against us. 
The President of the United States is no emperor, no dictator — 
he is clothed with no absolute power. He can do nothing unless 
he is backed by power in Congress. The House ^f Represent- 
atives is largely in the majority against him. 



r 3 

r In the Senate he will also be powerless. There will be a 
*^ majority of four against him. This, after the loss of Bigler, Fitch, 
^and others, by the unfortunate dissensions of the National Demo- 
■"^cratic party 'in their States. Mr. Lincoln can not appoint an 
■^^ pfficer without the consent of the Senate — he cannot form a 
S cabinet without the same consent. 

Mv countrymen, I am not of those wlio believe this Union has 
been a curse "up to this time. True men, men of integrity, enter- 
tain different views from me on this subject. I do not question 
their right to do so ; I would not impugn tlieir motives in so 
doing. "l^or will I undertake to say that this Government of our 
fathers is perfect. There is nothing perfect in this world of a 
human origin. 

But that this Government j©f our fathers, with all its defects, 
comes nearer the objects of all good governments than any otiiei- 
on the face of the earth is my settled conviction. Contrast it now 
with an^ on the face of the earth. 

Compare, my friends, this Government with that of Spain, 
Mexico, the South American Kepublics, Germany, Ireland — are 
there any sons of that down-trodden nation here to-night? 

I think that one of the evils that beset us is a surfeit of liberty, 
an exuberance of the priceless blessings for which we are un- 
grateful. 

"We listened to my honorable friend who addressed you last 
night (Mr. Toombs), as he recounted the evils of this Govern- 
ment. 

The first was the fishing bounties, paid mostly to the sailors of 
New England. Our friend stated that forty-eight years of our 
Government was under the administration of Southern Presi- 
dents. Well, these fishing bounties began under the rule of a 
Southern Presiu nt, I believe. No one of them, during the whole 
forty-eight years, ever set his Administration against the prin- 
ciple or policy of them. It is not for me to say whether it 
was a wise policy in the beginning ; it probably was not, and I 
have nothing to say in its defence. But the reason given for it 
was to encourage our young men to go to sea and learn to 
manage ships. We had at the time but a small navy. It was 
thought best to encourage a class of our people to become ac- 
quainted with seafaring life, to become sailors — to man our naval 
ships. It requires practice to walk the deck of a ship, to pull 
the ropes, to furl the sails, to go aloft, to climb the mast ; and it 
was thought, by oft'ering this bounty, a nursery might be formed 
in which young men would become perfected in these arts, and 
it applied to one section of the country as well as to any other. 

The result of this was, that in the war of 1S12 our sailors, 
many of whom came from this nursery, were equal to any that 
England brought against us. At any rate, no small part of the 
glories of that war were gained by the veteran tars of America, 
and the object of these bounties was to foster that branch of the 
national defence. My opinion is, that whatever may have been 
the reason at first, this bounty ought to be disconLinue<i — tlie 
reason for it, at first, no longer exists. A bill for this objecf. did 
pass the Senate the last Congress I was in, to which my honor- 



able friend contributed greatly, but it was not reached in the 
iloiTse of Kepresentatives. 

The next evil which my friend complained of was the Tariti. 
Well, let ITS look at that for a moment. About the time I com- 
menced noticing public matters, this question was agitating the 
country almost as fearfully as the slave question now is. In 
1832, when I was in college, South Carolina was ready to nullify 
or secede from the Union on this account. And what have we 
seen ? The Tariff no longer distracts the public councils. Rea- 
son has trium}>hed ! The present Tariff was voted for by Massa- 
chusetts and South Carolina. The lion and the lamb lay down 
too-ether — every man in the Senate and House from Massachu- 
setts and South Carolina, I think, voted for it, as did my honor- 
able friend himself. And if it be true, to use the figure of speech 
of my honorable friend, that every man in the Korth that works 
in iron and brass and wood has his muscle strengthened by the 
protection of the Government, that stimulant was given by his 
vote, and I believe every other Southern man. So we ought 
not to complain of that. 

Another matter of grievance alluded to by my honorable 
friend was the Navigation Laws. This policy was also com- 
menced under the Administration of one of these Southern 
Presidents who ruled so well, and has been continued through 
all of them since. The gentleman's views of the policy of these 
laws and my own do not disagree. We occupied the same 
ground in relation to them in Congress. It is not my purpose 
to defend tbem now. But it is proper to state some matters con- 
nected witli their origin. 

One of the o'ojeets was to build up a commercial American 
marine by giving American bottoms the exclusive carrying trade 
between our own ports. This is a great arm of national power. 
This object was accomplished. We have now an amount of 
shipping, not only coastwise, but to foreign countries, which puts 
us in the front rank of the nations of the world. England can 
no longer be styled the Mistress of the Seas. Y/hat American 
is not proud of the result ? Whether those laws should be con- 
tinued is another question. But one thing is certain : no Presi- 
dent, Northern or Southern, has ever yet recommended their 
repeal. And my friend's efforts to get them repealed were met 
with but little favor, North or South. 

These, then, were the true main grievances or groimds of com- 
plaint against the general system of our Government and its 
workings — I mean the adminislration of the Federal Government. 
Have we not at the South, as well as the North, grown great, 
prosperous, and happy under its operations ? Has any part of 
the world ever sho\vn"such rapid progress in the development of 
wealth, and all the material resources of national power and 
greatness, as the Southern States have under the General Gov- 
ernment, notwithstanding all its defects ? 

The great fact, that we have grown great and powerful under 
the Government as it exists — there is no conjecture or speculation 
about that ; it stands out bold, high, and prominent, like your 
Stone Mountain, to which the gentlemsti oii,i,^ed in illustrating 
home facts in his record. 



What we would have lost in border wars without the Union, 
or what we have g:airied simply by the peace it has secured, no 
estimate can be made of. The influence of the Govenmient on 
us is like that of the atmosphere around us. Its benefits are so 
silent and unseen that they are seldom thought of or a]^preciated. 
Our institutions constitute the basis, the matrix, from which 
spring all our characteristics of developments and greatness. 
Look at Greece. There is the same fertile soil, the same blue 
skv, the same inlets and harbors, the same -^gean, the same 
Olympus ; there is the same land where Homer sung, where 
Pericles spoke ; it is in nature the same old Greece — but it is 
living Greece no more. 

Descendants of the same people inhalnt the coBntry ; yet what 
is the reason of this mighty difference? In the midst of present 
degradation we see the glorious fragments of ancient works of art 
— temples with ornaments and inscriptions that excite wonder 
and admiration — the remains of a once high order of civilization 
which have outlived the language they spoke — upon them all 
Ichabod is written — their glory has departed. "Why is this so? 
I answer, their institutions have been destroyed. 

The same may be said of Italy. Where is Rome, once the 
mistress of the world ? There are the same seven hills now, the 
same soil, the same natural resources; nature is the same, but 
what a ruin of human greatncr^s meets the eye of the traveller 
throughout the length and breadth of that most down-trodden 
land! AVliy have not the people of that Heaven-favored clime 
the spirit that animated their fathers? Why this sad difference? 
It is the destruction of her institutions that has caused it ; and 
my countrymen, if we shall in an evil hour rashly pull down and 
destroy those institutions which the patriotic band of our fathers 
labored so long and so hard to build up, end which have done 
so much for us and the world, who can venture the prediction 
that similar results will not ensue? Let us avoid it if we can, 
I trust the spirit is among us that will enable us to do it. Let 
us not rashly try the experiment, for, if it fails, as it did in 
Greece and Italy, and in the South American Eepublics,_and in 
every other place wherever liberty is once destroyed, it may 
never be restored to us again. 

There are defects in om- government, errors in administration, 
and shortcomings of many kinds, but in spite of these defects and 
errors Georgia has grown to be a great state. Let us pause here 
a moment. In 1S5U there was a great crisis, but not so fearful as 
this ; for, of all I have ever passed through, this is the most per- 
ilous, and requires to be met with the greatest calmness and de- 
liberation. 

There were many amnng us in 1850 zealous to go at once out 
of the Union, to ui'tnipt evciy tie that binds us together. ^ jS^ow, 
do you believe, had that policy been carried out at that time, we 
would have been the same great people that we are to-day ? It 
may be that we would, but have you any assurance of that fact? 
Would you have nuide the same advancement, improvement, and 
progress in all that constitutes material wealth and prosperity 
that we have ? 



When I look around and see our prosperity in every thing, 
agriculture, commerce, art, science, and every department of edu- 
cation, physical and mental, as well as moral advancement, and 
our colleo-es, I think, in the face of such an exhibition, if we can, 
without the loss of power, or any essential right or interest, re- 
main in the Union, it is onr duty to ourselves and to posterity to 
— let us not too readily yield to this temptation — do so. Our 
first parents, the great progenitors of the human race, were not 
without a like temptation when in the garden of Eden. They 
were led to believe that their condition would be bettered — that 
their eyes would be opened — and that they would become as 
gods. They in an evil hour yielded — instead of becoming gods, 
they only saw their own nakedness. 

1 look upon this country, with our institutions, as the Eden of 
the world, the paradise of the universe. 

In the Georgia State Convention, held in January, 1861, to 
determine the question of secession for that State, Mr. Stephens 
gave utterance to the following memorable words : 

" This step (of secession) once taken, can never be recalled ; 
and all the balefal and withering consequences that must follow, 
will rest on the convention for all coming time. When we and 
our posterity shall see our lovely South desolated by the demon 
of war, WHICH this act of youks will inevitably invite and 
CALL forth ; when our green fields of waving harvest shall be 
trodden down by the murderous soldiery and fiery car of war 
sweeping over our land ; our temples of justice laid in ashes ; 
all the horrors and desolations of war upon us ; who but this 
Convention will be held responsible for it? and v^dio but 
him who shall have given his vote for this unwise and ill-timed 
measure, as I honestly think and believe, shall be held to 
strict account for this suicidal act by the present genera- 
tion, AND PROBA.BLY CURSED AND EXECRATED BY POSTERITY FOR ALL 

coming time, for the wide and desolating ruin that will inevi- 
tably follow this act you now propose to perpetrate ? Pause, I 
entreat you, and consider for a moment what reasons you can 
give that will even satisfy yourselves in calmer moments — what 
reasons you can give to your feliow-sufi'erers in the calamity that 
it will bring upon us. What reasons CAj\r you give to the na- 
tions OF THE earth TO JUSTIFY IT? They will be the calm and 
deliberate judges in the case; and what cause or one overt act 
can you name or point, on which to rest the plea of justification? 
What right has the North assailed? Wliat interest of the 
South has been invaded? Wiiat justice has been denied? and 
what claiuj, founded in justice and right, has been withheld? 
Can either of you to-day name one governmental act of wrong, 
deliberately and purposely done by the government of Wasliing- 
ton, of wliich the South has a right to complain ? I challenge 
the ansv/er. While, on the other hand, let me show the facts 
(and believe me, gentlemen, I aui not here the advocate of the 
North ; but I am here the friend, the firm friend and lover of 
the South and her institutions, and for this reason I speak thus 



plainly and faithfully for yours, mine, and every other man's 
interest, the words of truth and soberness), of which I wish you 
to judge, and I will only state facts which are clear and unde- 
niable, and which now stand as records authentic in the history 
of our country. When we of the South demanded the slave 
trade, or the importation of Africans for the cultivation of our 
lands, did they not yield the right for twenty years? When we 
asked a three-fifths representation in Congress for our slaves, was 
it not granted I When we asked and demanded the return of 
any fugitive from justice, or the recovery of those persons owing 
labor or allegiance, was it not incorporated in the Constitution, 
and again ratified and strengthened by the Fugitive Slave Law 
of 1850 ? But do you reply that in many instances they have 
violated this compact, and have not been faithful to their engage- 
ments? As individual and local communities, they may liave 
done so ; but not by the sanction of government ; for that has 
always been true to Southern interests. Again, gentlemen, 
look at another fact : when we have asked that more territory 
should be added, that we might spread the institution of slavery, 
have they not yielded to our demands in giving us Louisiana, 
Florida, and Texas, out of which four States have been carved, 
and ample territory for four more to be added in due time, if 
you, by this unwise and impolitic act, do not destroy this hope, 
and, perhaps, by it jpse all, and have your last slave wrenched 
from you by stern military rule, as South America and Mexico 
were ; or by the vindictive decree of a universal emancipation, 
which may reasonably be expected to follow. But, again, gen- 
tlemen, what have we to gain by this proposed change of our 
relation to the General Government? We have always had the 
control of it, and can yet, if we remain in it and are as united 
as we have been. We have had a majority of the Presidents 
chosen from the South, as well as the control and management 
of most of those chosen from tlie North. We have had sixty 
years of Southern Presidents to their twenty-four, thus control- 
ing the executive department. So of the judges of the Supreme 
Court, we have had eighteen from the South, and but eleven 
from the North ; although nearly four-fifths of the judicial busi- 
ness has arisen in the Free Stales, yet a majority of the Court 
has always been from the South. This we have required, so as 
to guard against any interpretation of the Constitution unfavor- 
able to us. In like manner, we have been equally watchful to 
guard our interests in the legislative branch of government. 
In choosing the presiding presidents {pro tem.^ of the Senate, 
we have had twenty-four to their eleven. Speakers of the 
house, we have had twenty-three, and they twelve. While the 
majority of the representatives, from their greater population, 
have always been from the North, yet we have so generally 
secured the Speaker, because he, to a greater extent, shapes and 
controls the legislation of the country. Nor have we had less 
control in every other department of the General Government. 
Attorney-Generals we have had fourteen, while the North have 
had but five. Foreign ministers we have had eighty-six and 
they but fifty-four. While three foiu'tha of the business which 



demands diplomatic agents abroad is clearly from the Free 
States, from their greater comniercial interests, yet we have had 
the principal embassies, so as to secure the world markets for 
our cotton, tobacco, and sngar, on the best possible terms. We 
have had a vast majority of the higher offices of both army and 
navy, while a larger proportion of tiie soldiers and sailors were 
drawn from the north. Equally so of clerks, auditors, and 
comptrollers filling the executive department, tlie records show 
for the last fifty years that of three thousand thus employed, we 
have had more than tv/o-thirds of the same, while we have but 
one-third of the white population of the Republic. Again, look 
at another item, and one, be assured, in which we have a great 
and vital interest ; it is that of revenue, or means of supporting 
government. From ofncial documents we learn that a fraction 
over three-fourth of the revenue collected for the support of 
government has uniformly been raised from the North. Pause 
now while you can, gentlemen, and contemplate carefully and 
candidly these important items. Leaving out of view, for the 
present, the countless millions of dollars you must expend in 
a war with the Nortli ; with tens of thousands of your sons and 
brothers slain in batlle, and offered up as sacrifices upon the 
altar of your ambition — and for what ? we ask again. Is it for 
the overthrow of the American government, established by our 
common ancestry, cemented and built up by their sweat and 
blood, and founded on the broad principles of riglit, justice, and 
humanity? And, as such, I must declare here, as i have often 
done before, and which has been repeated by the greatest and 
wisest of statesmen and patriots in this and other lands, that it 
is the best and freest government — the most equal in its rights, 
the most just in its decisions, the most lenient in its measures, 
and the most aspiring in its principles to elevate the race of men, 
that the sun of heaven ever shone upon. Now, for you to at- 
tempt to overthrow such a government as this, under which we 
have lived for more than three-quarters of a century — in which 
we have gained our wealth, our standing as a nation, our do- 
mestic safety while the elements of peril are around us, with 
peace and tranquillity accompanied with unbounded prosperity 
and rights unassailed — is the heiglit of madness^ foUy^ and 
wickedness^ to which I can neitlier lend my sanction nor my 
vote." 



Loyal Leagues^ Cluhs or individuals inay obtain any of out 
PuMications at the cost price, hy application to the Executive 
Cominittee^ or hy calling at the Rooms of the Society, No. 863 
Broadway^ where all information mmj he obtained rt>l,a.U'>in in. 
the Society. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




Francis tfc Loutkel, SUtioners and Printen 



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